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PubMed1994

Effect of air humidification on the sick building syndrome and perceived indoor air quality in hospitals: a four month longitudinal study.

The sensation of dryness and irritation is essential in the sick building syndrome (SBS), and such symptoms are common in both office and hospital employees. In Scandinavia, the indoor relative humidity in well ventilated buildings is usually in the range 10-35% in winter. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of steam air humidification on SBS and perceived air quality during the heating season. The study base consisted of a dynamic population of 104 hospital employees, working in four new and well ventilated geriatric hospital units in southern Sweden. Air humidification raised the relative air humidity to 40-45% in two units during a four months period, whereas the other two units served as controls with relative humidity from 25-35%. Symptoms and perceived indoor air quality were measured before and after the study period by a standardised self administered questionnaire. The technical measurements comprised room temperature, air humidity, static electricity, exhaust air flow, aerosols, microorganisms, and volatile organic compounds in the air. The most pronounced effect of the humidification was a significant decrease of the sensation of air dryness, static electricity, and airway symptoms. After four months of air humidification during the heating season, 24% reported a weekly sensation of dryness in humidified units, compared with 73% in controls. No significant changes in symptoms of SBS or perceived air quality over time were found in the control group. The room temperature in all units was between 21-23 degrees C, and no significant effect of air humidification on the air concentration of aerosols or volatile organic compounds was found. No growth of microorganisms was found in the supply air ducts, and no legionella bacteria were found in the supply water of the humidifier. Air humidification, however, significantly reduced the measured personal exposure to static electricity. It is concluded that air humidification during the heating season in colder climates can decrease symptoms of SBS and perception of dry air.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Venous air embolism, preservation/reperfusion injury, and the presence of intravascular air collection in human donor livers: a retrospective clinical study.

In human liver transplantation, air embolism is seldom encountered after graft reperfusion. Nevertheless, despite adequate flushing and clamping routines, air emboli have been reported in transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) studies performed during the reperfusion phase. We retrospectively investigated whether air in the donor liver -- as observed with pretransplant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- resulted in clinical air embolism or contributed to preservation/reperfusion injury. Clinical air embolism was assessed by intraoperative hemodynamics and end-tidal CO2 monitoring. Preservation/reperfusion injury was assessed in postoperative biochemical measurements. The outcomes were compared between patients receiving livers containing significant intrahepatic air and patients receiving livers without intrahepatic air. Forty-three livers were studied, seven which had major intrahepatic air and ten of which had no evidence of air collections. Twenty-six livers showed minor amounts of air and were excluded from further study. One patient who received a liver that did not contain intrahepatic air had clinical evidence of air embolism. Clinical air embolism did not appear to be associated with the presence of significant intrahepatic air based upon pretransplant MRI. Intrahepatic air did not seem to affect the amount of preservation/reperfusion injury. Our data indicate that air bubbles in the portal and arterial branches are absorbed during reperfusion and that the majority of intrahepatic air is effectively removed by the specific flushing routines.

Embolism, Air↗

PubMed2002

Effects of humidified and dry air on corneal endothelial cells during vitreal fluid-air exchange.

PURPOSE: To report the immediate anatomic and functional alterations in corneal endothelial cells following use of humidified air and dry air during vitreal fluid-air exchange in rabbits. DESIGN: Experimental study. METHODS: Rabbits undergoing pars plana vitrectomy and lensectomy were perfused with either dry or humidified air during fluid-air exchange for designated durations. Three different experiments were performed. First, control and experimental corneas were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Second, corneas were stained with Phalloidin-FITC and examined by fluorescein microscopy. Finally, third, transendothelial permeability for carboxyfluorescein was determined using a diffusion chamber. RESULTS: While different from the corneal endothelial cells, those cells exposed to humidified air were less stressed than cells exposed to dry air by SEM. Actin cytoskeleton was found highly disorganized with dry air exposure. Humidified air maintained the normal actin cytoskeleton throughout the 20 minutes of fluid-air exchange. Paracellular carboxyfluorescein leakage was significantly higher in dry air insufflated eyes compared with that of the humidified air after 5, 10, and 20 minutes of fluid-air exchange (P =.002, P =.004, and P =.002, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Dry air stress during fluid-air exchange causes significant immediate alterations in monolayer appearance, actin cytoskeleton, and barrier function of corneal endothelium in aphakic rabbit eyes. Use of humidified air largely prevents the alterations in monolayer appearance, actin cytoskeleton, and barrier function of corneal endothelial cells.

Actins↗

PubMed2000

Centrifuge modeling of air sparging - a study of air flow through saturated porous media.

The success of air sparging as a remedial technology for treatment of contaminated aquifers is well documented. However, there is no consensus, to date, on the mechanisms that control the flow of injected air through the saturated ground. Currently, only qualitative results from laboratory experiments are available to predict the zone of influence of a sparging well. Given that the patterns of air flow through the soil will ultimately determine the efficiency of an air sparging treatment, it is important to quantify how sparged air travels through a saturated porous medium. The main objective of this research is to develop a model that describes air transport through saturated porous media. This paper presents results from an ongoing study that employs centrifuge modeling to reproduce in situ air sparging conditions. Centrifuge testing is an experimental technique that allows reduced-scale duplication, in the laboratory, of the stresses and pressure distributions encountered in the field. In situ conditions are critical in the development of actual air flow patterns. Experiments are being conducted in a transparent porous medium consisting of crushed borosilicate glass submerged in fluids of matching indices of refraction. Air is observed as it flows through the porous medium at varying gravitational accelerations. Recorded images of experiments allow the determination of flow patterns, breakthrough velocities, and plume shapes as a function of g-level and injection pressure. Results show that air flow patterns vary from fingering, at low g-levels, to pulsing at higher accelerations. Grain and pore size distribution of the porous medium do not exclusively control air flow characteristics. Injector geometry has a definite effect on breakthrough velocities and air plume shapes. Experiments have been conducted to compare the velocity of air flow through the saturated porous medium to that of air in pure liquids. Results show that the velocity of air through the medium is lower than that in the pure fluid, as expected. At high g-levels however, plume breakthrough velocities are proportional to the velocity of the air in the pure fluid.

Acceleration↗

PubMed2006

UV air cleaners and upper-room air ultraviolet germicidal irradiation for controlling airborne bacteria and fungal spores.

In-room air cleaners (ACs) and upper-room air ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) are engineering control technologies that can help reduce the concentrations of airborne bacteria and fungal spores in the indoor environment. This study investigated six different types of ACs and quantified their ability to remove and/or inactivate airborne bacteria and fungal spores. Four of the air cleaners incorporated UV lamp(s) into their flow path. In addition, the efficacy of combining ACs with upper-room air UVGI was investigated. With the ventilation system providing zero or six air changes per hour, the air cleaners were tested separately or with the upper-room air UVGI system in operation in an 87-m3 test room. Active bacteria cells and fungal spores were aerosolized into the room such that their numbers and physiologic state were comparable both with and without air cleaning and upper-room air UVGI. In addition, the disinfection performance of a UV-C lamp internal to one of the ACs was evaluated by estimating the percentage of airborne bacteria cells and fungal spores captured on the air filter medium surface that were inactivated with UV exposure. Average airborne microbial clean air delivery rates (CADRm) varied between 26-981 m3 hr-1 depending on the AC, and between 1480-2370 m3 hr-1, when using air cleaners in combination with upper-room air UVGI. Culturing, direct microscopy, and optical particle counting revealed similar CADRm. The ACs performed similarly when challenged with three different microorganisms. Testing two of the ACs showed that no additional air cleaning was provided with the operation of an internal UV-C lamp; the internal UV-C lamps, however, inactivated 75% of fungal spores and 97% of bacteria cells captured in the air filter medium within 60 min.

Aerosols↗

PubMed1994

Effect of air, heliox, and oxygen breathing on air bubbles in aqueous tissues in the rat.

Our purpose was to examine the behavior of air bubbles in three non-lipid tissues (skeletal muscle, tendon, and the anterior chamber of the eye) during breathing of air, helium-oxygen (heliox, 80:20), or oxygen. Air bubbles were injected into skeletal muscle or tendon in rats after decompression from a 1-h air exposure at 3.5 atm abs (355 kPa) or into the anterior chamber of the rat eye without any previous pressure exposure. The bubbles were studied by photomicroscopy at 1 atm abs (101 kPa) during either air breathing or during air breathing followed by heliox or O2 breathing. Muscle: during air breathing, all bubbles initially increased in size for a period of 55-100 min after decompression and then started to shrink. Both heliox and O2 breathing increased the shrinking rate as compared to air. Bubble size decreased more rapidly during O2 than heliox breathing. Tendon: during air breathing, bubble size decreased at a constant rate; in one bubble the decrease was preceded by a small increase. During heliox breathing most bubbles decreased faster than during breathing of air. O2 breathing caused a short-term increase in bubble size in 4 out of 10 bubbles. Otherwise, the shrinkage rate was increased in six bubbles and uninfluenced in four bubbles during breathing of O2. Rat eye: during air breathing all bubbles shrank in the observation period. When heliox breathing was started, all bubbles transiently grew for 10-35 min, after which they began shrinking faster than during air breathing. When O2 breathing was started, five out of seven bubbles initially grew or stopped shrinking for 5-15 min, after which they decreased in size faster than during both air and heliox breathing. We conclude that breathing of either heliox or O2 will cause air bubbles in aqueous tissues to disappear faster than during breathing of air. Since heliox breathing promoted bubble shrinking in both muscle and tendon, gas exchange was probably not primarily limited by extravascular diffusion in these aqueous tissues. The present experiments suggest that heliox breathing at 1 atm abs may not exacerbate limb bends.

Air↗

PubMed2005

Improving microbial air quality in air-conditioned mass transport buses by opening the bus exhaust ventilation fans.

The air quality in air-conditioned mass transport buses may affect bus drivers' health. In-bus air quality improvement with the voluntary participation of bus drivers by opening the exhaust ventilation fans in the bus was implemented in the Seventh Bus Zone of Bangkok Mass Transit Authority. Four bus numbers, including bus numbers 16, 63, 67 and 166, were randomly selected to investigate microbial air quality and to observe the effect of opening the exhaust ventilation fans in the bus. With each bus number, 9 to 10 air-conditioned buses (total, 39 air-conditioned buses) were included. In-bus air samples were collected at 5 points in each studied bus using the Millipore Air Tester. A total of 195 air samples were cultured for bacterial and fungal counts. The results reveal that the exhaust ventilation fans of 17 air-conditioned buses (43.6%) were opened to ventilate in-bus air during the cycle of the bus route. The means +/- SD of bacterial counts and fungal counts in the studied buses with opened exhaust ventilation fans (83.8 +/- 70.7 and 38.0 +/- 42.8 cfu/m3) were significantly lower than those in the studied buses without opened exhaust ventilation fans (199.6 +/- 138.8 and 294.1 +/- 178.7 cfu/m3), p < 0.0005. All the air samples collected from the studied buses with opened exhaust ventilation fans were at acceptable levels (< 500 cfu/m3) compared with 4.6% of the air samples collected from the studied buses without opened exhaust ventilation fans, which had high levels (> 500 cfu/m3). Of the studied buses with opened exhaust ventilation fans (17 buses), the bacterial and fungal counts after opening the exhaust ventilation fans (68.3 +/- 33.8 and 28.3 +/- 19.3 cfu/m3) were significantly lower than those before opening the exhaust ventilation fans (158.3 +/- 116.9 and 85.3 +/- 71.2 cfu/m3), p < 0.005.

Air Conditioning↗

PubMed1986

Investigations concerning the standardisation of control-investigations of supply-air in air-conditioning systems in hospitals.

In the following investigation, air-germ measurements were conducted--using the Reuter-Centrifugal-Sampler (RCS) and the Sartorius-Sampler MD 3 (SAR), and using standardized nutrient-substratum and breeding conditions--in order to detect differences in the measuring process itself. The aim of the study was to find a standard for routine-measurements in hospitals. A special "Supply-Air-Box" was developed because of the known turbulences during the emission of air from the channel; in order to cut off the interference-factor during the measurements caused by the blending with the room-air. The results of the air-germ measurements showed a sufficient reproducability and a good representation of the results in differing measuring positions with both devices during repeated measurements. A marked difference between the two measuring-devices are the markedly higher CFU-numbers in the measurements using the RCS-device and the resulting higher variability of the single-values. The measurements using the supply-air-box show that--with the usual measuring position immediately in front of the supply-air grille screen or without grille screen at the channel end--a considerable part of room-air is also registered during the determination of the CFU-number because of the existing turbulences. Because of the markedly lower CFU-numbers with this procedure, new recommendations were suggested for the maximal mean CFU-number in the supply-air. Accordingly, not more than 5 CFU/m3 of air should be found with three-step-filtered supply-air in well-maintained installations for the inrestricted utilization of the rooms, and not more than a mean value of 30 CFU/m3 of air with two-step-filtered supply-air.

Air Conditioning↗

PubMed2006

Achieving 'excellent' indoor air quality in commercial offices equipped with air-handling unit--respirable suspended particulate.

UNLABELLED: A study was carried out to investigate the feasibility of achieving ultra low respirable suspended particulates (RSP) in commercial offices without major modification of existing ventilation systems by enhancing the particulates removal efficiency of existing central ventilation systems. Four types of filters which include pre-filters, cartridge filters, bag filters and high efficiency particulates air (HEPA) filters were tested in a commercial building in Causeway Bay. The results show that an RSP objective of <20 microg/m3 could be met by removing RSP from both the return air and outdoor air supply simultaneously. This level of performance is classed as 'excellent' by the Hong Kong Government, Environmental Protection Department. Filters with efficiency that exceed 80% placed both in the return air and outdoor air were sufficient to meet the objective. It is not necessary to install HEPA filters to achieve the 'excellent' class. The outdoor air filter has great influence on the steady state indoor RSP concentration while the effective cleaning rate is governed by the return air filter. Higher efficiency filters increased the static drop but the volume flow of the air fan was not affected significantly. The additional cost incurred was <5% of the existing operation cost. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This paper reports a field study of RSP control for an indoor office environment. The results are directly applicable to building service engineering in the design of ventilation systems using air-handling units. Field observations indicated that indoor RSP in an office environment could be suppressed below 20 microg/m3 within 1 h by the simultaneous filtration of outdoor air and return air. Outdoor air filtration has a great influence on the steady state indoor concentration and return air filtration governs the cleaning rate. It is believed that the results of this study could be extended to the cleaning of other indoor pollutants such as volatile organic compounds.

Air Movements↗

PubMed2005

Ontogenetic changes and developmental adjustments in lactate dehydrogenase isozymes of an obligate air-breathing fish Channa punctatus during deprivation of air access.

In air-breathing snakehead Channa punctatus, Ldh-B is expressed at all ontogenetic and developmental stages, while Ldh-A is expressed temporally in pre-hatchlings 12-13 days ahead of bimodal respiration marked by air-breathing. Remarkable differences are observed in the LDH isozyme expression among various ontogenetic and developmental stages upon denying air access. When denied air access, water-breathing larvae show two distinct characteristics: (i) they survive longer than transitory air-breathers due to independence from air-breathing and (ii) there is more transient induction of Ldh-B than Ldh-A. Transition to bimodal breathing, which occurred post-hatching in 15-day old larvae, is coincidental with inducibility of Ldh-A and concomitant down-regulation of Ldh-B. Heart tissue from air-breathing adults denied air access shows a preferential expression of LDH-A subunit and slight down-regulation of LDH-B. Heterotetramers of A and B subunits participate in adjusting LDH levels among those stages which either precede air-breathing switchover, or are subsequent to this transition. The contribution of heterotetramers depends on the stage-specific levels of LDH homotetramers A(4) or B(4). Scaling of muscle mass during growth, tolerance to extended deprivation of air access and induction of Ldh-A are correlated. Response to restoring air contact indicated that advanced air-breathing stages of C. punctatus possess an inherent capacity to sense surface air. In kinetic properties, LDH isozymes of C. punctatus are teleost-like but species specificity is displayed in oxidative potential by cardiac muscle and in L-lactate reduction by skeletal muscle.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed2006

A new model for investigating the mortality effects of multiple air pollutants in air pollution mortality time-series studies.

Because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates air pollutants independently, the majority of time-series studies on air pollution and mortality have focused on estimating the adverse health effects of a single pollutant. However, due to the sometimes high correlation between air pollutants, the results from studies that focus on a single air pollutant can be difficult to interpret. In addition, the high correlation between air pollutants can produce problems of interpretation for the standard method of investigating the adverse health effects due to multiple air pollutants. The standard method involves simultaneously including the multiple air pollutants in a single statistical model. Because of this, the development of new models to concurrently estimate the adverse health effects of multiple air pollutants has recently been identified as an important area of future research. In this article, a new model for disentangling the joint effects of multiple air pollutants in air pollution mortality time-series studies is introduced. This new model uses the time-series data to assign each air pollutant a weight that indicates the pollutant's contribution to the air pollution mixture that affects mortality and to estimate the effect of this air pollution mixture on mortality. This model offers an improvement in statistical estimation precision over the standard method. It also avoids problems of interpretation that can occur if the standard method is used. This new model is then illustrated by applying it to time-series data from two U.S. counties.

Air Pollutants↗

PubMed1971